January Press Updates + Announcing Our Shortlist!

AWP, our first ever shortlist, and more!

Jan 19, 2024

We hope you are having a peaceful start to the new year! We’ve been working on exciting things behind the scenes here at Abode. Welcome to our first newsletter of 2024!

Solidarity with Palestine

We have signed on to a joint statement in solidarity with Palestine for Texas literary entities— if you would like to join this initiative, you can fill out this form here.

We also posted the following statement in solidarity with Palestine on our social media this week and want to open our newsletter with it as well:

Abode Press was originally established to add more representation to a landscape that wants to silence our voices and to fight back against book bans and censorship in the South. To bear witness to the calculated murders and kidnappings of journalists (80+ deaths) and poets and writers (13+ deaths) in Gaza means we must speak out against the unjust attacks on free speech and human life.

We have added our name to a joint statement Texas Presses/Journals Joint Statement on Ongoing Genocide in Palestine to speak out against the use of censorship in Western media. Below is an excerpt from the petition we’d like to highlight: “One could ask why we as a group of journals, presses, and magazines would choose to make a statement on Palestine and not the many other tragedies in our world. What is unique is our battle here at home against the massive spread of misinformation, bias, and one-sided media reporting at the expense of ethical journalism. Those speaking out against genocide are being fired from their jobs, doxxed and censored. Stifling free speech and banning books are grave concerns long familiar to us and we recognize the danger of silencing marginalized voices–everything we as writers stand against.”

We ask that other Texas literary organizations/writers sign on to the petition to join us in calling for equal representation in the media. For individual writers, we ask that you sign Writers Against the War on Gaza, which calls for a collective effort to halt the war. We ask you to add your name, contact your representatives, participate in protests, or employ any means at your disposal to call for a permanent ceasefire, to end the displacement of millions of Palestinians, and for humanitarian aid to reach Gaza. In Unwavering Solidarity & Commitment, Abode Press

“If I must die, you must live to tell my story to sell my things to buy a piece of cloth and some strings, (make it white with a long tail) so that a child, somewhere in Gaza while looking heaven in the eye awaiting his dad who left in a blaze– and bid no one farewell not even to his flesh not even to himself– sees the kite, my kite you made, flying up above and thinks for a moment an angel is there bringing back love If I must die let it bring hope let it be a tale” - From Dr. Refaat Alareer, who shared this poem weeks before he was murdered 12/6/2023 by an Israeli airstrike.

Abode at AWP

We’ll be at AWP in Kansas City next month. Say hi if you see us!

Offsite event: A VERY QUEER BIPOC READING! Hosted by Texas literary organizations Abode Press, Infrarrealista Review, Host Publications, & Porter House Review, join us for an evening filled with talented queer BIPOC writers, including KB Brookins, aureleo sans, Bri Gonzalez, mónica teresa ortiz, Stephanie Niu, m. mick powell, Dee Lalo Garcia, Monica Prince, Laura Villarreal, & Jessica Nirvana Ram
- Where: Nighthawk, Kansas City, MO
- When: February 7th, 7-9pm
- Masks strongly encouraged!
Founder and Director Diamond Braxton will be joining Juania Sueños, Murphy Anne Carter, Claire Bowman, and Cyrus Gray on the panel Publishing as Activism: Amplifying Marginalized Voices
- When: February 8th, 3:20-4:25pm
Table: Find us at Table 3335 during the bookfair with Defunkt Magazine. We will have postcards, bookmarks, and a special deal on our 2024 workshops

At Abode, we believe offering affordable workshops is important so all writers can have access to writing tools and community engagement. All of our workshops are virtual and are offered on a sliding scale, starting at $10.

Thank you so much for the incredible response to our call for proposals! We now have workshops on varying themes scheduled through December facilitated by incredible writers in our community. Check out all of our offerings here (a few more will be added over the next week or so).

Next month, we have The Art of Writing...About the Art of Writing taught by Poetry Editor SG Huerta

When: Feb 20, 2024, 6:30 PM – 8:00 PM CST
What: This workshop will dive into the complexities of writing about writing through ars poetica: poetry written about the art of poetry. Though this workshop is grounded in poetics, writers of all genres can take away insights on the value of writing about writing! Will you write an ars poetica or an anti poetica?

Shortlist Announcement

We’ll admit— this is a long shortlist, particularly in poetry! (Our poetry editor estimated that 15% of subs made it to the shortlist). We had incredibly challenging decisions to make in every genre. Thank you so much to everyone who sent us their incredible work. In no particular order, a very special thank you to the following writers who were shortlisted during this reading period.

Poetry:

A Glorious Fire by R Joseph Rodriguez
sampaguita as alien species by Yvanna Vien Tica
The Jordan Rules by Jet Butler
BAMIDBAR by Aliyah Blattner
Offerings to a Tumbled Temple by Leticia Urieta
Across the Water by Verna Zafra-Kasala
Sipestisyon by Mckendy Fils-Aime
griefnotes by Audrey Gidman
In Mo(u)rning by Peter Faziani
restland by Nicholas Barnes
facts from when you were lost by Ashley Varela
micro.climates by David Maduli
WHERE HAS MY SOUL GONE? by Kate Rose
We like to Party by Julian Martinez
Blood Quantum & Other Hate Crimes by Marsheila Rockwell
The Orishas of South beach by Geoffrey Philp
Some Notes on Source Text by Bridget Kriner

Hybrid:

Colonial Dysphoria Hunger by Esteban Santis
Gold: A Trans-Retelling of Goldilocks and the Three Bears by Robin Gow

Fiction:

Hormonal House by Ashwini Gangal
Some Scars Never Go Away by Sudha Balagopal
Reusables by Tuan Phan
Speaking in Spanglish by L Vocem

We’re so grateful to have been trusted with these manuscripts. Stay tuned for our 2024-2025 catalog announcement!

Thank you for supporting Abode in 2023 and beyond. We can’t wait to see what 2024 brings. Until next time!

Abode Press is an intersectional, anti-racist, anti-colonial 501(c)3 nonprofit publishing press dedicated to uplifting underrepresented voices. If you have the means, consider making a tax-deductible donation to Abode! On top of helping us attend AWP and other community events, donations help us cover printing and distribution, press tools and software, and author advances. You can also become a paid subscriber right here!

Abode Press

January Press Updates + Announcing Our Shortlist!

AWP, our first ever shortlist, and more!

Solidarity with Palestine

Abode at AWP

Workshops

Shortlist Announcement

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